tjschaeffer

I'm currently considering buying the Wacom Bamboo or the Wacom Intuos5, but I'm wondering about a few things.

What's it like drawing on one surface and seeing it on another? My biggest concern is that I'll get frustrated not directly looking at what I am drawing. A coworker recommended the cintiq, but I'm not made of money.

Also, does anyone have any recommendations for perhaps a lower cost tablet with an LCD screen? I have an iPad and sketchbook Pro, but I've never really tried to use it. Anyone ever give that a whirl?

Sorry for all the questions, I'm just bad at decision making...especially when it comes to buying things.

tjschaeffer

What software are you using?
What is your current input device?
How do you plan to use it?

If I was planning to spend all the earnings I would buy the cintiq after all :P
The shirt earnings simply made it easier to convince my wife that I needed a new toy.

As for the other questions:
-Currently using Photoshop CS5 (or is it 4? I don't remember. One or the other)
-Currently I use my touch screen monitor as my input device (at least for drawing). It ends up leaving me with a very tired arm after only a short time inking/coloring.
-I would like to use it to either draw everything from scratch without pencil and paper, or at the very least use it to cleanly ink over scanned lineart, especially using the pressure sensitivity function. My lines tend to be very flat post inking.

odysseyroc

I'm currently considering buying the Wacom Bamboo or the Wacom Intuos5, but I'm wondering about a few things.

What's it like drawing on one surface and seeing it on another? My biggest concern is that I'll get frustrated not directly looking at what I am drawing. A coworker recommended the cintiq, but I'm not made of money.

Also, does anyone have any recommendations for perhaps a lower cost tablet with an LCD screen? I have an iPad and sketchbook Pro, but I've never really tried to use it. Anyone ever give that a whirl?

Sorry for all the questions, I'm just bad at decision making...especially when it comes to buying things.

I recently ditched my old intuos 2 for a monoprice tablet. Best $50 I've ever spent.

no1

I'm currently considering buying the Wacom Bamboo or the Wacom Intuos5, but I'm wondering about a few things.

What's it like drawing on one surface and seeing it on another? My biggest concern is that I'll get frustrated not directly looking at what I am drawing. A coworker recommended the cintiq, but I'm not made of money.

most people can get used to it. people coordinate eyes and hands while playing video games all the time. that said, imo it's never going to be quite as good as seeing your fingers/stylus/pencil/pen while you draw.

if you're really concerned about how it mite feel, try a cheapo tablet first. if you can handle a cheap tablet, moving up to a wacom will usually make the experience even better.

tjschaeffer wrote:Also, does anyone have any recommendations for perhaps a lower cost tablet with an LCD screen? I have an iPad and sketchbook Pro, but I've never really tried to use it. Anyone ever give that a whirl?

not lower cost, but tgentry has posted about buying the samsung slate pc (a windows laptop with a stylus and touchscreen in an overgrown tablet format). i think samsung also makes more androidy stuff (galaxy note in a couple of sizes).

j5

tjschaeffer wrote:If I was planning to spend all the earnings I would buy the cintiq after all :P
The shirt earnings simply made it easier to convince my wife that I needed a new toy.

As for the other questions:
-Currently using Photoshop CS5 (or is it 4? I don't remember. One or the other)
-Currently I use my touch screen monitor as my input device (at least for drawing). It ends up leaving me with a very tired arm after only a short time inking/coloring.
-I would like to use it to either draw everything from scratch without pencil and paper, or at the very least use it to cleanly ink over scanned lineart, especially using the pressure sensitivity function. My lines tend to be very flat post inking.

Reiterating OdRoc's review, the monoprice tablet is tiptop bang for the buck..
Here you goBuy extra nibs and a replacement pen for great justice.
Maybe use the savings to upgrade your PS to v6 and pick up Illustrator also. It really helps get crisp lines if your hand is unsteady (like mine).

fishbiscuit5

no1 wrote:not lower cost, but tgentry has posted about buying the samsung slate pc (a windows laptop with a stylus and touchscreen in an overgrown tablet format). i think samsung also makes more androidy stuff (galaxy note in a couple of sizes).

I had a Wacom Bamboo tablet and switched to the Samsung Slate. It's an amazing difference drawing directly on the screen! It runs just like a PC with the convenience of Wacom technology built in. Photoshop runs lightning fast on the Slate. Not as cheap as buying a Bamboo or Monoprice, but worth it for me because it gave me portability. Now I can draw anywhere!

vielleicht

I've been a Wacom user for over ten years now and I have loved every single one I've owned. I don't even HAVE a mouse anymore, I just use the tablet.

You get used to the feeling pretty quickly - I'd say within half an hour. After all, you don't look at where you're mousing when you use a mouse, right? Wouldn't be any different, really.

IIRC, the Bamboo is marketed as an "entry level"/recreational tablet, and probably won't have as many levels of pressure sensitivity. Intuos is marketed more for actual graphic artists, so I'd stick with that. (Also, I think I heard somewhere that the Intuos5 introduced some crazy technology that senses fingertips, but not hands, so you can switch between pen input and "fingerpainting" pretty easily - I'd love to try THAT out!)

I love my Intuos 4, because the first thing that always wore out on my old tablets was the power cord, and this one is the first I've owned that has had a detachable power cord (standard mini-USB). The cord died about a month ago, and it cost like $2 on Amazon to get a new cord. Success!

Also, with pad size: bigger is definitely better. I started with a 3x5, and it was pretty useless. I have a 6x9 now and like it well enough, although I would absolutely LOVE a 8x12. One day...!

I can't *really* speak for other brands, but I had an off-brand tablet once, when I first started, and...never again. I'm sure other brands have gotten better since then, but why bother? Wacom has never done me wrong. They're always really responsive, great pressure levels, and the pen/mouse don't use batteries which is great (that crappy off-brand one used batteries).

no1

vielleicht wrote:You get used to the feeling pretty quickly - I'd say within half an hour. After all, you don't look at where you're mousing when you use a mouse, right? Wouldn't be any different, really.

while i agree that you get used to it fairly quickly, i have to say that, in my personal experience, drawing with a mouse sucks the big one and isn't really the best example to be comparing.

vielleicht

no1 wrote:while i agree that you get used to it fairly quickly, i have to say that, in my personal experience, drawing with a mouse sucks the big one and isn't really the best example to be comparing.

I wasn't comparing the actual experience of drawing, since yeah, using a mouse to draw sucks a LOT. My point was more that you don't feel the need to watch the mouse as you use it, even when drawing. ;)

OP, give the $50 one a try, let us know what you think. I think I'm too married to Wacom to switch, but I'd love to hear how it goes.

tjschaeffer

vielleicht wrote:I wasn't comparing the actual experience of drawing, since yeah, using a mouse to draw sucks a LOT. My point was more that you don't feel the need to watch the mouse as you use it, even when drawing. ;)

OP, give the $50 one a try, let us know what you think. I think I'm too married to Wacom to switch, but I'd love to hear how it goes.

Yeah, I'll let you guys know what I think. I've heard plenty of good things about Wacom, and I have no doubt they make a good product. After weighing the pros and cons of one over the other, I think the Monoprice tablet at $50 will serve as the better starter tablet for me, rather than diving in and spending a ton of money on the Wacom.

lonelypond

tjschaeffer wrote:Also, does anyone have any recommendations for perhaps a lower cost tablet with an LCD screen? I have an iPad and sketchbook Pro, but I've never really tried to use it. Anyone ever give that a whirl?

Thanks for making me aware that there's a mostly affordable Autodesk Sketchbook for the computer. I love the iPad specific Sketchbook program but there's a few things it can't do and I have a Wacom I don't get to use enough.

kevlar51

lonelypond wrote:Thanks for making me aware that there's a mostly affordable Autodesk Sketchbook for the computer. I love the iPad specific Sketchbook program but there's a few things it can't do and I have a Wacom I don't get to use enough.

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